How Great Thou Art Watch the Video

How Great Thou Art

Read: Luke 19:29-40

Intro.: It was no ordinary Sunday – the disciples knew that.

1. It was the day after the Jewish sabbath and now they had been sent to find a young donkey for Jesus to ride

2. In fact Jesus had told them what to say if they were questioned; tell them, “The Lord has need of it.”

3. And when they had brought the colt to Jesus, they took their cloaks and put it on its back and set Jesus on it.

4. And as they made their way down the Mount of Olives, the multitude of the disciples that were followers laid down their cloaks in from of the colt. Others laid down branches from the trees.

5. There were some who went ahead of Jesus and his friends – and there was a group that followed behind.

6. But where ever you walked that day you heard them: John 12: Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel! Matt 21: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Luke 19: Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!

7. It was no ordinary day. I suspect that if the hymn How Great Thou Art had been around, we would have heard it being sung that day as well.

Pray

Trans: For Swedish pastor Carl Boberg it was an ordinary day.

1. It was the spring of 1886. He was visiting a friend in the country and had gone out for a walk.

2. But he, unexpectedly, found himself caught in a thunderstorm.

3. And it was not a quiet storm – he described it later as being “awesome and violent” - but it ended quickly.

4. And its path were clear, brilliant sunshine. As he continued his walk, he heard the calm sweet singing of birds in the trees.

5. He could not go on – he fell to his knees to praise. He had been awed by God's extraordinary work that day. The adoration he felt led him to write a nine stanza poem.

6. The Swedish church set his poem to the tune of an old folk tune.

7. Quickly it was translated in German and Russian. It was not until 1925 that it was first translated into English by Rev. E. Gustav Johnson – a member of the Covenant Church a church with a decidedly Scandinavian heritage:

   O mighty God, when I behold the wonder Of nature’s beauty, wrought by words of thine, And how thou leadest all from realms up yonder, Sustaining earthly life with love benign, With rapture filled, my soul thy name would laud, O mighty God! O mighty God! (repeat)¹

8. Though this is still the version that is included in the Covenant Church's hymnal, it is not the version that we know and love.

9. The translation that we are familiar with was written in 1933 by Rev. S. K. Hine. He was a missionary to Russia and heard the Russian translation. S. K. Hine then wrote the original English words that were eventually made famous by George Beverly Shea in Billy Graham's famous London Crusade:²

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder, Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made; I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art. (repeat)³

T.S. Praise is a universal response to God's grace and power. Whether it be from a pastor in a field in 1886 or from us living in 2008.

1. David expressed praise – Psalms 145:3 (HCSB) Yahweh is great and is highly praised; His greatness is unsearchable.

   1. Unless we use the name of Jesus, we don't normally give God a name.

   2. But in the OT, God had a name – the most common name is YHWH. Tradition tells us that it was never pronounced out loud and if seen scripture it was replaced by the title – Adonai. YHWH is considered God's personal name.

   3. The roots of the word come from “To be” - God tells Moses the he is to be called “I am who I am” - which has the same roots as the name YHWH.

   4. So David is ready to praise the Great I AM – His greatness is “unsearchable”

(Ill.) John Jay was the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Using his words, “God is great, and therefore He will be sought: He is good, and therefore He will be found.”⁴

(Ill.) Sometimes it takes courage to acknowledge God's greatness. In 1717 when France’s Louis XIV died, his body lay in a golden coffin. He had called himself the “Sun King,” and his court was the most magnificent in Europe. To dramatize his greatness, he had given orders that during his funeral the cathedral would be only dimly lighted with only a special candle set above the coffin. As thousands waited in hushed silence, Bishop Massilon began to speak. Then slowly reaching down, he snuffed out the candle, saying, “Only God is great!”⁵

(Appl.) My prayer for you today is that you can recognize that only God is great. I am not great (no surprise there), but neither are you. Only God is great. May we agree with David, “Yahweh is great and is highly praised; His greatness is unsearchable.”

2. Paul expressed praise - 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (HCSB) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will always be with the Lord.

   1. Rev. Boberg reminded us of God's greatness in the present.

   2. David reminded of God's greatness in the past.

   3. Paul aims our view to the future.

   4. Somehow that seems strange – after all, I wouldn't think of coming up to you and saying, “Thank you for mowing my lawn” - at least not until you had done it.

   5. But Paul knows that God is control of the future.

(Ill.) Most of you know the difficulty Sandra has had at work these past three months. During most of that time I have had two pieces of advice.

“What are you supposed to do?” “My best.”

“Who are you supposed to trust?” “God.”

We were reminded of that this last week in Georgia. We began each day at 7:15 with gathering together for Communion before breakfast. On the first day we were led to the Lord's table by Dr. Winston O. R. Worrell. Wesley was guided in the early days of his faith by the Moravians – and we chose to use the Moravian Daily Texts to be the focus of our communion each morning. On Tuesday morning, the first morning of our conference, we were reminded by the texts to “trust God, trust God, trust God, trust God.” Sandra and I both heard my voice echo through Rev. Worrell's that morning. But catch this, the very nature of trusting God, is to believe that he will be there in the future just as much as has been in the past and is in the present. I, like Sandra, and like you, must remember to “trust God, trust God, trust God, trust God.”

Conclusion: We, with generations before us, can sing -

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder, Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made; I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow, in humble adoration, And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!" Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art. Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

Pray

1http://www.pietisten.org/summer02/sightings.html

2Osbeck, K. W. (1982). 101 hymn stories. Includes music and index. (99). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications.

3Osbeck, K. W. (1990). Amazing grace : 366 inspiring hymn stories for daily devotions. Includes indexes. (141). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications.

4Federer, W. J. (2001). Great Quotations : A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Quotations Influencing Early and Modern World History Referenced according to their Sources in Literature, Memoirs, Letters, Governmental Documents, Speeches, Charters, Court Decisions and Constitutions. St. Louis, MO: AmeriSearch.

5Morgan, R. J. (2000). Nelson's complete book of stories, illustrations, and quotes (electronic ed.) (635). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

In The Garden Watch the Video

In The Garden

Intro.: I thought about beginning with a journey to outer space.

1. But tossed that out fairly quickly.

2. I then thought about beginning with a visit to the zoo.

3. But that was not quite right -

4. You see, today, we will take a walk In The Garden.

5. To this point, it is the song that has been asked for the most. There is one other song that has so far been asked for multiple times. But In The Garden is where we will start.

Pray

Trans: In 1912, C. Austin Miles was a pharmacist by trade. His personal hobby was as a photographer. But as a believer, his passion was music.

1. In church he was the song leader and, as such, he occasionally wrote a song. Two of his songs have come to the 21^st century church – we have already sung one, A New Name In Glory. The other is one of our beloved songs, In The Garden.

2. His publisher and friend, Adam Geibel, asked him to write a song for a new hymnal that he was planning to publish. The assigned song, according to Miles, had to be “sympathetic in tone, breathing tenderness in every line; one that would bring hope to the hopeless, rest for the weary, and downy pillows in dying beds.”

3. Austin knew it was going to be tough. But on that fateful day in 1912 as he sat in a semi-darkened room, he opened his Bible to his favorite chapter – John 20. For him, it was a powerful meeting between Mary Magdalene and her first encounter with the risen Christ

4. He found himself standing there with Mary – at the Garden of Gethsemane looking into the empty tomb – she saw two angels dressed in white. But then she hears a voice, “Mary”. It was not the voice she expected to hear, but she knew that voice. It was the Teacher, “Rabboni” she cried. She had come face to face to face with the risen Christ.¹

5. The words of today's hymn refer not some random encounter with the Lord in a Garden, but they remind us of the miraculous meeting between Mary and her Lord on that first Easter Sunday so long ago:

I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses

And the voice I hear falling on my ear

The Son of God discloses.²

6. What an appropriate hymn to begin our Lenten series.

Read: John 20:1-18

T.S. There are four key points in John 20:1-18.

1. Mary finds the empty tomb.

   1. Can you imagine the confusion that Mary must have felt that morning? She had gone to the garden tomb to worship her Lord alone. But what she was not prepared for what she found.

   2. The stone was gone – she couldn't look inside, she knew what she would find – an empty tomb.

(Ill.) Charles Spurgeon reminds us that there are three key points in Christ's life on which our faith rests. The first is the incarnation – the birth of Jesus. Though His birth does not save us, without the incarnation there could be no sacrifice. Christ's death on that dark Friday is the sacrifice that saves us. But it is only with the resurrection the next Sunday that allows to proclaim that we serve a living God that not only died for our sins, but also gives eternal life to all who believe. To quote Spurgeon, “Bethlehem, Calvary, and the empty tomb, all alike should stir our souls and draw our hearts out to God in wonder, love, and praise.”³

3. But we know that from hind sight – Mary found an empty tomb and did not know what to think.

2. Mary finds the disciples.

   1. Mary does the sensible thing – she goes to Jesus' closest friends – Peter and John

   2. They hear her tell of the empty tomb and take off running for the tomb. John gets there first – but all he finds is the cloth that was used to wrap the body of Jesus. Scripture says that they believed – though they still did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

   3. There was nothing they could do, something amazing had happened, but all they could do was wait and see.

   4. I find it amazing that the disciples who were closest to Jesus ran from the tomb. They could not handle it. They were willing to look – in fact they went into the tomb when Mary did not. But when they saw that Jesus was really gone, their faith was shaken. Scripture does say, “they believed”, but they did not understand.

(Appl.) God does not always expect us to understand. He does expect us to place our faith in what we know – even if we do not understand. This is where the disciples find themselves that first Easter morning, believing not understanding.

5. The disciples run, but Mary Magdalene stays behind.

3. Mary finds the Angels.

   1. Mary was emotional. When the disciples left, she sat down and cried.

(Ill.) My dentist is lucky. Not because of the money he makes off of me, but because he is one of the few people who gets to hear me sing. You see, when I get that shot of Novocaine I could scream, or cry, but I choose to sing. No fancy song, but just a simple melody – but Mary is in no mood to sing. These are real tears.

1. And while crying, she has two conversations.

2. The first was with two angels she saw sitting in the tomb. They respond much like you or I might, “Why are you crying?”

3. Jesus had predicted that His followers would weep. In John 16:20 we are told that Jesus had told His disciples, “I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.”

4. But those tears would be short lived. Jesus concludes the verse by saying, “You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy ... Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

5. You know, God has given two angels to Mary, but it does not seem to be enough.

6. There are times when life seems so tough, that it takes more than the angels to get us through.

4. Mary finds Jesus.

   1. And she hears another voice. “Why are you crying? Who are you looking for?” At first she thinks it the gardener. The person who is responsible for maintaining the garden and the cemetery.

   2. “Where have you laid Him?”

   3. But she recognized the voice – it was the voice of the teacher.

   4. Mary is startled – and she yells out “Rabboni” - “Teacher”

(Ill.) Have you ever met somebody you never expected to see in a place you never expected to see them. It really feels weird. For example, Sandra and I will have breakfast over at our local family restaurant. And when we do, we will find someone there that we don't expect to find – it might be a friend from our old church, or someone we know from some other context. Last week it was one of the clerks from our favorite pizza spot. It feels good to make contact with someone and to be recognized. But it also seems weird. I wonder if that is some of what Mary felt when she recognized Jesus for the first time?

5. “Rabboni”, Teacher. How? Why? I saw you die on the cross last Friday?

6. And then joy feels me as I realize that He is alive.

Conclusion:

I came to the garden alone While the dew is still on the roses And the voice I heard falling on my ear The Son of God discloses.

Pray

1http://www.joyfulministry.com/inthegart.htm

2http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/g/itgarden.htm

3AMG Bible Illustrations. 2000 (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; Bible Illustrations Series. Chattanooga: AMG Publishers.